Harness.



PATENIED APR. 24, 1906.

E. H. YULE.

HARNESS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 5, 1905.

atto'onu i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDGAR H. YULE, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TOFREDERICK W. YULE, OF TIPTON, IOIVA.

HARNESS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 24, 1906.

Application filed September 5, 1905. Serial No- 277.025.

lo a whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EDGARH. YULE, a citi- Zen of the United States,residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State ofCalifornia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inHarness; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in harness, and is more especiallydesigned for use in connection with artillery or artillerywagons,although it is not restricted to such use.

The object of my invention is to provide a harness which gives astraight line of draft from the swingletree to the lead horses and anindependent line of draft for the wheelhorses, thus obviating unduestrains upon the wheel-horses, (which are usually larger and heavierthan the swing and lead horses.)

The harness now in common use is objectionable for the reason that whenall six horses are pulling their proportionate amount of the load thereisan unnecessary downward pull on the wheel-horses necks. This, inaddition to the weight of the collar, pole, and pole-yoke, puts at timesan enormous load on the necks of the leaders, and practical experiencehas shown that after a short period of actual service almost all thewheel-horses are afflicted with sore necks, a thing which rarely happenswith the swing or lead horses. WVhen the horses are going uphill, thisdownward pull is very noticeable, the result being that the wheel-horsesshow a constant tendency to lag until the trace-tugs on their collarsare almost perpendicular, and in some instances the strain is so greatthat the wheel-horses give way under it by crouching or kneeling, or, inother words, by proceeding with a stumbling gait. Furthermore, I havefound that the wheel-horses soon become broken down in front by carryingthis undue load upon the fore legs. These objections are removed by myimproved harness.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of my improvedharness, showing also a wheel-horse and artilleryman in dotted lines;and Fig. 2 is a detailed view, on a larger scale, showing the doubletraces and the cockeve.

a represents the pole, supported from the collars b in the usual manner.

0 represents the swingletree, to which is at tached, through the mediumof the strong spring a, the double cockeye e. To one of the hooks thetrace f is attached, which trace runs directly to a fastening on thecollar of the wheel-horse. To the other hook of the cockeye a trace 9 isattached, which runs through a loop h, carried by a strap i on thecollar of the wheel-horse and which is attached to the harness of theswing-horse. The traces f and g are supported near their centers by theloin-strap k, provided with two loops 6 and m, one for each of saidtraces. The traces may be made of any desired'material, such as leather,steel cable, chain, &c.

The harness thus described has been tested long and exhaustively. Abattery has been operated over steep and rugged hills, has gone throughdeep sand, has taken fifteen-mile practice marches, and, in addition,has been thoroughly tested in countermarching and reversing at a trotand gallop, and in every case it has worked satisfactorily.

The advantages of this harness are as follows:

First. There is no downward pull on the wheel-horses necks from theleaders.

Second. It allows the wheel-horses to exert more of an upward pull uponthe carriage when it drops into a rut, low place, or sinks into softground.

Third. It eliminates the jerk on the wheelers necks in going downgradeor across ditches, as when the lead-horses and swinghorses go intodraft, as they often do after they have crossed the ditch and recoveredthemselves and the wheel-horses are still in the ditch and not in draft.By reason of the fact that the lead-horses and swing-horses have anindependent line of draft they come into it and keep the carriage movingat a crit ical moment after they have crossed the obstruction and fullyrecovered themselves. The wheel-horses are not interfered with as theyare crossing the bad place and have perfect freedom of movement incoming up the bank and come into draft gradually after having recoveredthemselves from holding the carriage back and going through the ditch.

Fourth. The seesaw motion on the wheelhorses necks is eliminated, thismotion being caused by the fact that the lead-horses and swing-horses donot keep in step; This seesaw motion is considerable when all the horsesare in draft, as they should be.

Fifth. The Wheel horses have complete freedom of motion at all times.

Sixth. The Wheel-horses are not held down with a load on their necksfrom the pull of the horses in front of them.

Seventh. The arrangement lowers the traces of the swing-horses, so thattheir collars do not slip upward when in draft and choke the horses. v

Having thus described my invention, What I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a harness, the combination of two sets of traces, one set adaptedto be attached to the collars of the wheel-horses, and the other set tobe attached to the collars of the swing or lead horses, guides for saidtraces, a double cockeye to which the rear end of each set of the tracesis secured, and means for securing said cockeye to the swingletree,substantially as described.

2. In a harness, the combination of two sets of traces, one adapted tobe attached to the collars of the wheel-horses, and the other to thecollars oi the swing-horses, guides for said traces, a double cockeye'towhich the rear end of one trace of each set is secured, and acoil-spring attached to said cockeye and adapted to be attached to theswinglee tree, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDGAR H. YULE. Witnesses:

GEO. H. ROUNDEY, F. D. CARE.

